Since the rise of Bitcoin over the past few years, cryptocurrencies have been experiencing all the hype. Suppose you’re looking to discuss strategies or understand the discussion in popular forums and subreddits. It is essential to know and understand some commonly used crypto terminologies or crypto slang used in these forums. Just like the pool of traders and the market have grown considerably over the years, we have also witnessed the rise of some commonly used crypto slangs like HODL, FUD and FOMO, and crypto terminologies like shill and the flippening, which we’ve discussed in-depth in this post.
Here’s a quick glossary of some popular terms to equip yourself with up-to-date crypto slang.
1. HODL
One of the most popular crypto slangs, HODL started when HOLD was misspelled as HODL in early bitcoin forums. Some people mistakenly think that it is an abbreviation for “Hold On for Dear Life”. This is the act of holding your position on the crypto regardless of how the market fluctuates in the short run. It became a rallying cry for a situation of holding on to your coin even if it crashes and awaiting further growth.
You might come across crypto enthusiasts encouraging each other to HODL, especially during times of market volatility, to avoid selling out of panic and fear.
Now, it has become a meme of sorts so that when the prices are highly eruptive, bitcoin buyers say ‘HODL!’
2. FUD
FUD means Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Despite the FUD of those outside the community, Bitcoin followers will advise you to HODL your coins.
This crypto slang is used to drive weaker investors into selling their coins, ultimately to lower prices. This allows other, less confident investors to enter the market again. Someone who spreads FUD is known as a FUDster.
3. FOMO
As the name suggests in colloquial terms, FOMO is an acronym for Fear Of Missing Out. One can feel FOMO when there’s a crypto that rallies and they didn’t manage to buy in before the surge, which leads to them buying when the prices are already high.
4. Shill
Don’t be a Shill!
This crypto terminology basically refers to a person who hypes and promotes altcoins for their benefit. A scammer in the crypto-world. They encourage others to invest in altcoins that would help bump up their investments. In the world of cryptocurrencies, the shilling is part of a marketing ploy to bring awareness to certain coins that may or may not hold any value. This is why traders are advised to “do your own research” (DYOR).
5. Rekt
Short for wrecked — or a situation that arises if you lose lots of money on a trade.
6. Mooning
When used in a phrase like “to the moon”, it means that the coin is expected to skyrocket, as if to head to the moon experiencing a dramatic spike. A kind of celebratory term used so that the crypto-watchers will often get excited about minor bumps in price and boast that their coin is headed “to the moon,”
7. Whale
A whale is an investor/ group of investors powerful enough to influence the value of a coin. It means someone who holds a large amount of a crypto coin, such as 5% or more of Bitcoin’s 18,713,700* circulating supply, which is enough to bring prices down if they sell all their coins together.
*(The information about the Bitcoin’s supply is subject to change with each passing day)
Naturally, the value of the coins would fall immediately following the mass sell-off. The whales could then scoop their profits and buy up more coins at a bargain-basement price.
8. Pump and Dump
‘Hey, let’s pump this coin together.’
Pump and dump is a tactic used by groups to manipulate the sentiments of the crypto market. This helps to create demand in the market, so the value of the coin skyrockets.
As the process goes, people collectively buy a chosen coin to pump its price and collect their profits by quickly selling them off. The ensuing sell-off will typically result in a price crash (dump), and the cycle occurs in a very short period.
The practice of an open secret amongst many cryptocurrency traders, these schemes are often orchestrated through apps like Slack or Telegram, and that one should be aware of such gimmicks.
9. Sats
Short for “Satoshi,” this pseudonym is used by the bitcoin creator. It refers to the smallest unit of bitcoin (one hundred millionth bitcoin) stored on the blockchain.
10. Flippening
This situation has never seen the face of the earth till now. But not impossible. A future event where Ethereum’s market capitalization overtakes Bitcoin’s. Definitely one of the most popular crypto terminologies in the current market landscape.
All jokes aside, it’s one thing to bring yourself to trust and start buying and selling a young asset such as Bitcoin, but quite another to engage with a community that has invented a dictionary’s-worth of crypto slang. Buy your first cryptocurrency on Giottus. It is user-friendly, offers you the best rates in the market, and gives you security by 100% insurance against cyber thefts.
What is to be kept in mind is that this is not an exhaustive list presented by Giottus, but it is enough to help you ride to get started on discussing crypto in your favorite telegram community, discord channels, or subreddits!
